Drive testing is a technique in which a vehicle which is equipped with a receiver is driven around a coverage area of a mobile radio network in order to generate a map of a relative performance of data communications within a radio coverage area provided by one or more base stations of the mobile radio network. The receiver is arranged to receive data in accordance with a wireless access interface specified for the mobile radio network concerned in order to determine a quality of the communicated data. The vehicle is driven by an operator throughout the coverage area of the mobile radio network in order to establish a map identifying a performance of the wireless access interface in respect of a quality of service at locations within an area covered by the mobile radio network. As will be appreciated, employing a technique in which an operator must drive a vehicle around a mobile radio network in order to establish a performance of that network is both time consuming and therefore expensive.
Although drive testing provides an accurate measurement of performance of a mobile radio network it is desirable to find alternative techniques which both reduce cost and complexity.
A further technique of monitoring the behaviour of a mobile radio network is to use a so called “probe” system. In such systems a particular network element or link between network elements of the mobile radio network is monitored by some form of data processor. Typically, the data processor records all data transmitted across the network element/link which is then processed. Due to the complexity of most modern mobile radio networks, the volume of data collected is usually very high, even if some form of filtering is applied to isolate a particular type of data which is then recorded. For example, if a probe system were to be used to capture data relating to a particular coverage area even if a filter was applied such that only data pertaining to that coverage area was captured, the quantity of data that would be collected would be likely to be very great. It is very difficult to manage, in a structured way, such large quantities of data. It is particularly difficult to do so in a timely manner.